Small arms weapon



Jan. 23, 1968 w. D. BARTON SMALL ARMS WEAPON Filed April 18, 1966 FIG.1.

FIG. 2.

INVENTOR WILLIAM D. BARTON z? 'IIJ ATTORNEY United States Patent Office 3,364,817 Patented Jan. 23, 1968 3,364,817 SMALL ARMS WEAPON William D. Barton, Danville, Calif., assignor to ME Associates, a corporation of California Continuation-impart of application Ser. No. 418,939, Nov. 18, 1964. This application Apr. 18, 1966, Ser. No. 585,703

8 Claims. (Cl. 891.813)

This application is a continuation-in-part of my application Ser. No. 418,939, filed Nov. 18, 1964, which is a divisional application of Ser. No. 141,237, filed Sept. 20, 1961, which is a continuation-in-part of Ser. No. 61,017, filed Oct. 6, 1960, each of the applications now being abandoned.

This invention rel-ates to a new and improved ordnance weapon in accordance with the basic concept of the teachings of which a small rocket is provided. More particularly, the invention discloses positioning a plurality of miniature rockets in a firing tube so that they may be fired sequentially. In accordance with various embodiments of the invention a plurality of such miniature rockets may be packaged together in a firing tube so that all of them can be fired simultaneously, or a number of such rockets may be dispersed and fired from a carrier such as a shell, bomb or missile.

Traditionally, the rifle has been used as the standard small arms weapon. However, it suffers from a number of disadvantages. It is expensive to manufacture. The accuracy required in machining the barrel and the precision required in the parts for scaling and feeding the bullet and cartridge materially increases the cost of the rifle whereby the means for launching the bullet is considered to be relatively expensive. A rifle is heavy both in itself and with respect to its ammunition, and requires considerable skill to manipulate with any degree of effectiveness. The length of the barrel and the precision and rifling embodied in the barrel lining obviously limits the rifle to a size and weight which militates against concealment, and it calls for a rifle of substantial weight thereby imposing a burden on personnel making use of the rifle. Further, the bullet has the undesirable characteristic of having its maximum velocity at the muzzle of the .gun, whereas one would prefer to have the maximum velocity at some range from the gun. Since it is necessary that a bullet must acquire its velocity from the expansion of gases while in the barrel of the rifle and prior to ejection from the gun, it is essential for the proper design of a rifle to provide a barrel of sufficient length to enable full acceleration of the bullet before ejection from the barrel and to form the barrel perfectly with suitable rifling to direct the bullet accurately at the time that it is ejected from the barrel towards the target. The velocity of the rifle bullet from the very start is too low for maximum effectiveness since, using ordinary techniques, the velocity is about 2,800 ft. per second. If velocities of 3,000 ft. per second and higher can be achieved, the victim suffers severe shock and disintegration as contrasted to mere penetration achieved by an ordinary rifle. Even less effectiveness is experienced in proportion to the distance the bullet travels from the rifle before striking a target. Although attempts have been made to obtain higher muzzle velocities for rifles, such attempts have invariably resulted in increased weapon weight and rapid erosion of the gun barrel.

Further, the rate of acceleration required to be effected within the length of the rifle barrel introduces a considerable amount of recoil in the rifle whereby the user is exposed to a rather large kick-back which makes it diflicult to control the barrel and its effective use is limited to persons capable of withstanding the shock. Further, be-

cause of the high rate of acceleration and rotation of the bullet projected from the rifle, it is diflicult to bond or join other elements with the bullet, such as in bacteriological or chemical warfare agents which also must be easily diseminated in the target, for delivery with the bullet to a distant target. Therefore, this limits the rifle to uses for delivery of bullets and the like payloads.

Still further, the rifle is subject to the deficiency that, once the bullet is free of the barrel, it thereafter decelerates in velocity such that maximum effectiveness, from the standpoint of speed or velocity, occurs close to the rifle whereas at distances 200 to 300 yards from the rifle, the velocity of the bullet has decreased to such extent as to no longer have ultimate effectiveness.

In contrast to the rifle and bullet, self-propelled miniature rockets as taught in this application can be launched by the user with little, if any, initial velocity whereby the launching device need not be fabricated of high strength, heavy, carefully machined elements. Instead, the miniature rocket of this invention can be launched from any inexpensive and readily available device such as from a soda straw, or from an elongated tube for imparting direction to the rocket, or even from a cigarette. Depending, of course, upon the fuse arrangement and the direction of firing of the rocket where a cigarette is used, a clever kill weapon is available.

Since the rockets are of such small dimension and weight, a series of rockets or a plurality of rockets can be housed within a single launching device for sequential firing for area coverage, but wherein the entire assembly weighs less than a fraction of a pound and occupies very little space.

Because the rocket gathers speed by acceleration in flight, as distinguished from acceleration within the confined length of a rifle barrel, there is no recoil or kickback upon firing such that the rocket can be fired without shock and with very little, if any, previous training, except possibly for aiming the rocket weapon in the direction towards the target.

Since the rockets gather speed by acceleration during flight, the maximum speed will be achieved in the probable target area at a distance from the point of launch, it becomes possible, with the miniature rockets of this invention, to develop smeds which exceed 3500 and even 5000 feet per second with kill speeds of better than 3000 feet per second still being maintained 200 to 300* feet from the launch area. It is known that above certain projectile velocities that the kinetic energy of the projectile is a more important Wound ballistic parameter than momentum. Because of the extremely high velocities of these miniature rockets in the probable target area they are very effective kinetic energy kill mechanisms. Rockets never have been used heretofore as a purely anti-personnel weapon because they have been too large for such use; have not been accurate enough; could not be made small enough and furthermore did not fly fast enough. They have been therefore always used to deliver payloads.

These are but a few of the advantages capable of being derived from the use of miniature self-propelled finned rockets which form the subject matter of this invention. Accordingly, this invention is limited to the new and important field of miniature rockets which have a diameter within the range of to 1 inch and a length within the range of /2 to 24 inches and preferably to miniscule or miniature rockets having a diameter of less than inch and a length less than 6 inches as distinguished from such self-propelled rocketry as represented by rockets of considerably larger dimensions which are not designed for and are incapable of use as kinetic energy, anti-personnel kill mechanisms.

Other objects and advantages will become apparent from the following description taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings, in which:

FIG. 1 is a view partially in cross-section and partially in side elevation showing several telescoped launching tubes suitable for use in carrying out the present invention;

FIG. 2 is an enlarged view of a launching device shown in FIG. 1, showing in detail the manner in which the rockets are mounted within the launcher;

FIG. 3 is a sectional view on line 3-3 of FIG. 2;

FIG. 4 is a partial sectional view similar to FIG. 2 showing another method of mounting the rockets within the launcher; and

FIG. 5 is a fragmentary view of the igniting means for the rockets.

Turning now to the respective views in the drawing, there is shown, generally at It), the new and improved launching device for miniature rockets, which includes a tubular body having an elongated end portion 11 connected to an enlarged portion 12 by a restricted section or adaptor portion 13.

The entire tubular body, both the enlarged and small end portions which are connected in the manner described, may be constructed of any suitable light weight material, such as cardboard or a relatively rigid plastic. Should plastic be chosen as the desired material, the tubular body may be made of one piece. However, if cardboard is availed of, it may be less expensive to use two tubular sections and connect them together by an adaptor as previously described. It is also contemplated that the tubular sections may be threaded together in the area of or at the adaptor section 13.

With further reference to FIG. 1, it will be observed from a study of the sectional view of the handle portion 12 that due to the choice of the size of the two tubes which are connected by the adaptor 13, a number of launchers can be telescoped longitudinally relative to each other by inserting the small end into the handle portion of an adjacent launcher for the purpose of saving space and also acting as a safety device for the primer means which will be described later.

The enlarged embodiment of FIG. 2 illustrates best the manner in which the individual rockets 14 are supported near the rear end of the small tube 11. One method of mounting the rockets 14 in the tube is by means of a honeycomb-like structure 15, which serves to divide the tube into a series of individual compartments, all of which is also well-shown in FIG. 3. The front ends of the individual jets may be maintained in the center of the individual compartment of the honeycomb-like structure 15 by means of a perforated sheet 16 of a frangible material, such as thin paper.

Positioned adjacent to the transversely aligned finned tails of the rockets is a deflector plate 17 through the medium of which only one, a few, or the entire number of rockets may be ignited. It will be observed that in this enlarged view there is shown a fuse 18 which extends through the deflector plate 17 into the cavity in the nozzle area (not shown) of one of the rockets. The free end of the fuse 18 dead-ends into an igniter means 19 which is positioned adjacent to an aperture in the tubular body 11. This is shown more clearly in FIG. 5. By depressing the button 20 into the cavity provided in the cylindrical wall of the pin 21, which extends therefrom and is in alignment with the igniter 19, will thus set off the igniter and, in turn, fire the rocket to which the defiagrating fuse is connected. When the first rocket is ignited, it Will begin to fire and prior to being propelled from the tube 11, its charge of efiiuent gas will be deflected by the transversely extending plate 17 to the propellant of the adjacent rockets whereupon they will be fired substantially in sequence.

The embodiment of the invention shown in FIG. 4 shows a further method of holding the rockets in position by means of embedding them in a matrix 22 of a solid material such as foam plastic. It will be apparent that in this embodiment of the invention it is unnecessary to use the honeycomb-like structure 15 which was described previously in connection with the embodiment of the invention shown in FIGS. 2 and 3.

Although several embodiments of the invention have been depicted and described, it will be apparent that these embodiments are illustrative in nature and that a number of modifications in the apparatus and variations in its end use may be effected without departing from the spirit or scope of the invention as defined in the appended claims.

That which is claimed is:

1. A rocket launching device comprising a tubular member having a large end and a reduced area communieating with a small end, a series of rockets longitudinally aligned in said small tubular end by means of a divider structure, a deflector plate positioned in said small tubular end forwardly of said reduced area and adjacent to said rockets, said deflector plate being adapted to cause the eifluent emitted from an ignited rocket to ignite adjacent rockets, an ignition means extending through said deliector plate and communicating with at least one of said rockets and means to ignite said rocket.

2. A rocket launching device of the type claimed in claim 1, wherein the small end of the launching device is adapted to be telescoped within the large end of another device aligned therewith thereby facilitating packaging.

3. A rocket launching device of the type claimed in claim 1, wherein the divider comprises a honeycomb having a plurality of non-communicating chambers.

4. A rocket launching device of the type claimed in claim 1, wherein means extending transversely of said small tubular end are adapted to position the rockets in a side-by-side relation.

5. A rocket launching device of the type claimed in claim 1, wherein said deflector plate includes a concave surface confronting said rockets.

6. A rocket launching device of the type claimed in claim 2, wherein the large end of said launching device prevents inadvertent ignition of the rockets during transit.

7. A rocket launching device of the type claimed in claim 1, wherein said divider structure comprises a foam plastic.

3. A rocket launching device of the type claimed in claim 1, wherein said deflector plate comprises a plurality of individual concave recesses.

No references cited.

SAMUEL W. ENGLE, Primary Examiner. 

1. A ROCKET LAUNCHING DEVICE COMPRISING A TUBULAR MEMBER HAVING A LARGE END AND A REDUCED AREA COMMUNICATING WITH A SMALL END, A SERIES OF ROCKETS LONGITUDINALLY ALIGNED IN SAID SMALL TUBULAR END BY MEANS OF A DIVIDER STRUCTURE, A DEFLECTOR PLATE POSITIONED IN SAID SMALL TUBULAR END FORWARDLY OF SAID REDUCED AREA AND ADJACENT TO SAID ROCKETS, SAID DEFLECTOR PLATE BEING ADAPTED TO CAUSE THE EFFLUENT EMITTED FROM AN IGNITED ROCKET TO IGNITE ADJACENT ROCKETS, AN IGNITION MEANS EXTENDING THROUGH SAID DEFLECTOR PLATE AND COMMUNICATING WITH AT LEAST ONE OF SAID ROCKETS AND MEANS TO IGNITE SAID ROCKET. 